Marquette City Police auction off unclaimed bicycles

Marquette area cyclists looking for a new set of wheels this summer may be in luck.

The Marquette City Police Department is holding its annual bike auction tomorrow afternoon. The purpose of the auction is to help reduce the city’s inventory of bicycles found by police after having been lost or stolen.

“Once we respond, we attempt to reunite those items with the owners if possible, and if that’s unable to be done, what we do is we lodge them in our cold storage building, and then after a year if they’re not recovered or returned, we auction them off,” Capt. Blake Rieboldt said.

Prospective buyers can visit the storage building behind the city’s Municipal Service Center on Baraga Avenue from noon until 6 p.m. to place bids on the available bicycles. Although they’ve attempted online auctions in the past, police have found that the in-person silent auction is most effective.

“A lot of people like to get down there and actually see what kind of condition the bikes are in, what options they have available, so we figured this is a better way to handle it, and it seems to be a lot smoother,” Capt. Rieboldt added.

Other surplus goods, such as tools and camping equipment, will also be available. Winning bidders will be able to pick up their items on Wednesday, June 11th.